A majority of Indian wildlife scientists are unable to come together to create a united front to add a much-needed conservation focus to policymaking. In an age when we are trying to balance development with protection of forest areas, wildlife biologists need to actively respond to and engage with situations where the wildlife and conservation angles need to be highlighted. They should make the effort to translate science into policy in conjunction with the bureaucracy and actively work towards creating a much-needed platform for collaboration.

Researchers like to work on projects that start small and slowly scale up. They must think bigger and faster, says Sandy J. Andelman, to tackle today's problems in time.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7356/full/475290a.html

Vijayan summarizes the problems faced with respect to funding of research. He suggests how grant system could be improved to achieve better quality in research. The manner in which grant
applications are handled and funds are released is only one dimension (albeit a major one); there are other aspects to the
problem. (Correspondence)

A shoddy inter-academy report on GM crops casts a shadow on the integrity and competence of Indian science, while a US expert finds approval for Bt brinjal deeply flawed according to this latest special report in Down to Earth.  

By ending ownership of ideas we can banish ignorance and change human history.

The leading academies of science in India have, at the request of the government, prepared a report that was expected to give an independent scientific review of transgenic crops and the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Bill. But the Inter- Academy Report that has been prepared is disappointing on several fronts

It is time for a science of how city growth affects society and environment, say Luis Bettencourt and Geoffrey West.